Colours
by SarakuHD
Summary: "It's my favourite colour, as well as a tribute!" In which the Straw Hat pirates are enlightened upon the choices of colour their captain chooses.
Whenever they would go inland for supplies, they were also buying clothes. 'Necessities,' Nami would say – and she had the final say, being their treasurer, lest they had to pay to even initiate a discussion with her. During those moments, when they brought (read: dragged) Luffy with them, he would be looking at specific colours.

More often than not, it was red. Red coats, red shirts. Ussop swore he found a red cardigan on Luffy's hammock once (Not that they believed him).

Chopper once found Luffy absentmindedly staring at his red vest - blank glaze covering his mischievous eyes – and he nearly sent the crew into a panic attack when Luffy didn't respond to his nakama's calls.

When asked why he was so entranced by the colour red, Luffy would give his signature grin and say, "It's my favourite colour!"

* * *

Luffy loved the sea. It was ironic for a Devil Fruit user, much less Luffy who would rather bathe in grass.

The first time Sanji asked what Luffy was staring at the sea for, their captain had fallen overboard in surprise, a look of confusion written on his face just before he plopped into the water.

After lectures from Nami and Chopper, he had been assigned someone to watch him when he went 'sea watching.'

It was Robin who asked the question. "Captain-san, why do you stare at the sea so much?"

Luffy laughed, childish and light-hearted, replied, "The sea's blue! It's my favourite colour!"

* * *

Luffy had been wearing the red cardigan Ussop once told them about. The crew noticed how he looked forlorn every time he glanced at the cardigan, eyes filled with more pain than there ever should have been. Franky said he even smelled it sometimes, then a sad look would come on and all bets were off.

What confused the crew more, was the yellow sash. The only 'yellow' thing their captain had worn for the duration of their journey was his beloved straw hat.

It was Franky that pointed out the primary colour status Luffy had gained. Of course, while they all changed outfits depending on whether and event, they noticed Luffy had a combo of red and blue. Now yellow joined the mix.

"Why are you wearing red, blue, and yellow so much for, Luffy-san?" Their musician prompted on night on a noisy dinner – and calming down the insanity that was Zoro and Sanji's fight.

Luffy bit down on his meat, swallowed, and flicked his eyes up to his nakama. A large grin – wider than ever – formed on Luffy's face and said, "It's my favourite colour, as well as a tribute!"

* * *

It wasn't until they crashed the Chief of Staff (literally, for they had been running from a species of especially rabid monkeys that swallowed a human alive) of the Revolutionary Army did they truly understand the significance.

After getting Koala to pry the D. off the fire-user, they had approaches Sabo, looks solemn and tired. They explained the colour fiasco, and while it wasn't a big deal, Nami demanded to know the reason for the colour combination (because damn it, Luffy kept wearing the yellow sash even while being forced into a fancy suit. It hurt her credibility), and Sabo let out a small laugh, fondness and exasperation evident, with a hint of sorrow.

"As a kid, Ace, Luffy, and I developed a flag for ourselves, for when we set off as pirates," they didn't point out the flash of pure anguish at the mention of the late D. brother, "and our initials were the general idea of the flag. ASL. We painted the respective letters our favourite colours. Red for Ace, blue for myself, yellow for Luffy."

Ah. _Ah._

Because then, Luffy had lost practically everything. While his crew was there, just scattered, the people that joined him – gave him happiness instead of loneliness, they were all _gone_. Ace was the last of the two, and when Marineford occurred, Luffy had no one. Then one returned, inherited the will of the other, and took on their promise.

(They could understand the puddle of tears during Dressrosa, now.)

* * *

A/N: This started off with a post I sent to Kurapikababu on tumblr, with me stating how Luffy's Post-Timeskip outfit matched the ASL Flag. They then proceeded to make a graphic off it. They also replied how Luffy;s outfits mostly have red and blue on them, and then I was seriously determined to make this story.

I also went about 280 words more than my intended word count. Ah, well.

Also, if you guys couldn't tell, I headcanon that the red cardigan came from Ace for Luffy's 17th birthday. Cue the feels.


End file.
